Air Toxics Emissions Inventory Protocol for the Great Lakes States

2.0 Responsibilities and Procedures

This section describes the individual and joint responsibilities of the Great Lakes States, the Great Lakes Commission (GLC), and the Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO), as part of the regional air toxics emissions inventory development effort. The primary means of coordinating the efforts of the participating states and other participants is through the Technical Steering Committee. This Committee is composed of all those who have a role in developing the regional inventory. Voting members are the eight Great Lake States, each with one vote. Non-voting participants include Canada, GLC, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), GLNPO, and any others as needed.

This section also presents procedures that the states and GLC will use to resolve issues related to the development and use of the regional database air toxic emissions data and estimates (i.e., the regional inventory).

2.1 Responsibilities

2.1.1 State Responsibilities

Each of the eight Great Lakes States is responsible for:

• Preparing its portion of the regional inventory, consistent with the Protocol procedures, and implementing the Quality Assurance/ Quality Control (QA/QC) Plan;
• Documenting (in writing) any deviations from the Protocol when preparing its portion of the regional inventory, and submitting this information to the Technical Steering Committee;
• Uploading their state-specific inventory to the regional repository at the GLNPO;
• Submitting their state-specific air toxics emissions data and estimates to the U.S. EPA's Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS), Aerometric Facility Subsystem (AFS), and Area and Mobile Source (AMS) Subsystem;
• Procuring all software and hardware necessary to run a computerized inventory development system and to access the regional repository at the GLNPO;
• Identifying and resolving outstanding issues related to the preparation and use of the regional inventory using the procedures and processes described in this Protocol;
• Participating in group discussions to specify the content of the inventory development report to be prepared by GLC;
• Training staff on how to use the Protocol and any other tools available to assist the states in preparing their components of the regional inventory; and
• Staffing the Technical Steering Committee and attending Committee meetings to discuss and resolve issues of regional air toxics emissions inventory development and use.

2.1.2 GLC Responsibilities

The GLC is responsible for:

• Coordinating state activities in preparing, updating, and maintaining the regional inventory;
• Facilitating access to the regional inventory over the Internet by interested parties;
• Helping to define the role GLNPO will play in the inventory development effort, particularly GLNPO's role as a repository of the regional emissions database, and the maintenance of the inventory database system;
• Preparing a report summarizing the results of the regional inventory development effort;
• Coordinating meetings of the participating parties to discuss and resolve inventory development and use issues;
• Coordinating staff training (participating states, GLNPO, GLC and U.S. EPA) in the preparation and use of the regional inventory;
• Providing Internet access to information related to the development and use of the regional inventory, the Source Summary Database (SSD) (see Section 3.3), and various reference tables (see Section 7.0); and
• Acting as liaison between U.S. EPA, GLNPO, the Great Lakes States, the Technical Steering Committee, the Great Lakes Protection Fund (GLPF) and other parties interested in regional air toxics emissions inventory development, access, and use.

2.1.3 GLNPO Responsibilities

The GLNPO is responsible for:

• Maintaining and updating ORACLE® and SAS®, and the table space on the server required by the regional database;
• Acting as the repository for the regional database of emissions data and estimates;
• Maintaining the ORACLE®-based regional inventory and updating the associated reference tables;
• Providing and maintaining the hardware and software required to store and manage the inventory database; and
• Providing and maintaining the hardware and software required to access this information for the eight Great Lakes States, the Technical Steering Committee, GLC, and other interested parties to access this information over the Internet.

2.1.4 Joint Responsibilities

The Great Lakes States, GLC, and GLNPO are jointly responsible for:

• Updating and maintaining the Protocol and QA/QC Plan;
• Compiling, storing, updating, and archiving the emissions data and estimates in the regional repository;
• Generating a summary report describing the results of the regional inventory development effort;
• Resolving issues related to the development and use of the regional inventory;
• Generating summary reports and graphical representations of the emissions data and estimates contained in the regional repository; and
• Maintaining communications (hardware and software) between each of the eight Great Lakes States, GLC, and GLNPO to ensure ready access to the database by interested parties (excluding any emissions data deemed confidential by the participating states).

2.2 Procedures for Resolving Issues

The purpose of the Technical Steering Committee is to help direct the project and resolve any project technical issues, ensuring that the regional inventory is "properly" compiled and maintained. The procedure for resolving issues is outlined below.

Upon identifying an issue, a representative (state, GLC, or GLNPO) will either prepare a brief memorandum describing the issue and desired action, or raise the issue for discussion during a meeting of the Great Lakes States and GLC. The Technical Steering Committee Chairperson will moderate a discussion of the issue, during which the pros and cons of various solutions/actions will be discussed. The goal of the discussion is to reach agreement through consensus.

If consensus cannot be reached, the states and/or GLC will select a representative to formally raise the issue so that a possible solution may be adopted by all the states. The state representative will prepare a resolution briefly describing the issue and are commended solution/action. The states may vote to adopt or reject a resolution during a meeting or may vote by mail. The GLC, GLNPO, and U.S. EPA do not have voting privileges. Each state will have one vote, regardless of the number of representatives from the state that attend a meeting. Each state will designate a voting member and an alternate. A reasonable time period will be alloted within which each state may cast its vote. A simple majority of the votes will adopt the resolution. Ties will be decided by the Technical Steering Committee Chairperson. The Chairperson will send a letter notifying each of the Great Lakes States, GLC, and GLNPO of the voting results. The Chairperson will then select a state representative to update the Protocol and distribute the updates to the Great Lakes States, GLC, GLNPO, and any other party deemed appropriate.